Growing up, I remember my middle school English teacher getting us kids to write down some of the things we did and experiences we had that left an impression on us. She encouraged us to keep this up in the form of a written journal. She told us that one day we would really appreciate being able to look back and relive with fondness each of the coming-of-age milestones that were important to us at the time. Keeping a journal would also push us to ponder how these unique events impacted our lives and help shape us into the adults we became.
I’m sad to say that I didn’t listen to my teacher and faithfully take detailed life notes of all the memorable goings on of my teenage years and beyond. I do still have some of my old school notes documenting a few of these cherished memories, which I’m deeply appreciative that my mom saved so that I have them now.
My teacher was right: these written memories mean more to me now than I could ever have imagined. Not simply for purposes of nostalgia, but also as a type of family heirloom that I can pass on to my children, who can then pass it on to their children, and so forth.
How could childhood notes in any way benefit my kin, you might be asking yourself? Well, one of the things I’ve come to realize is that journaling isn’t just about scrawling the minute details of one’s personal life across the pages of a private diary in order to keep them under lock and key…
Though there are definitely therapeutic benefits to be gained from journaling for personal reasons.
But perhaps even more valuable is having the opportunity to share the treasure trove of one’s memories and life lessons, transcribed through the various lenses of age, experience, and emotion, from one generation to the next.
The written words you choose to leave behind as part of your legacy can have a tremendous impact on your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, and really anyone in your life whom you love and cherish. Whether you’re young, old, or somewhere in between, it’s never too late to start journaling.
I would encourage you to do so (and also teach your children to do so), because the rewards are invaluable. Not only does journaling help you to get things off your own chest, in turn relieving tension and stress. But it can also enrich others who gain the unique opportunity to learn from the trials and errors of your personal journey.
Family Journaling to Forge Closer Bonds With Loved Ones
Sure, some things about your life are deeply personal and you don’t necessarily want everybody to know about them. But if you think about the process more like scrapbooking, except with a pen and paper rather than photos and mementos, you’ll better understand the type of journaling I’m talking about − the life story kind of journaling.
One example of this might be a shared family journal, into which each member of the family contributes their own personal life experiences in a narrative format. The experiences themselves might be isolated, meaning that family member experienced them alone. Or they might be shared, meaning that a family member is relaying a shared family experience from their own perspective.
Having each person write down their experiences in order to read them all later as a family is a great way to forge stronger bonds. It’s a way to maintain more intimate relationships with one another in a fast-paced and increasingly disjointed world. And over time, you’ll end up with a collection of short stories about your family that you can preserve as part of your heritage.
Personal Journaling for Healing and Refreshment
Keeping a journal for personal reflection, as I’ve come to appreciate, has its own benefits for all areas of health… whether it be mental, emotional, or even physical. According to acclaimed social psychologist Dr. James Pennebaker, spending just 20 minutes per day, three or four days per week, writing things down − thoughts, feelings, or whatever it might be − can actually help increase immune function and make one more resistant to disease or infection.
Numerous studies that Dr. Pennebaker has conducted over the years on the role of journaling in both mental and physical health reveal that keeping a journal offers steady and consistent relief from the stresses of life, which in turn helps boost the body’s ability to maintain a healthy state of homeostasis (balance).
You probably know that bottling up your emotions and inadvertently burying them deep within the subconscious can have devastating effects on your long-term health, but the same is true for your experiences.
Again, whether good or bad, the thoughts you think, the feelings you harbor, the experiences you have, the pains, the joys… all of these things are what make you uniquely human. If you keep these things locked away in the depths of your inner self, the legacy you end up leaving behind will be rote and barren, at least to those around you who likely never have gotten the chance to truly know you at a deeper and more genuine level.
Don’t deprive yourself or your family of the gift of knowing and being known through journaling. Do it for your relationships; do it for your own health; and do it to preserve a solid legacy that will enrich your family’s heritage for many generations to come. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
Have you tried journaling? Do you journal on a regular basis? Please share your experience of how journaling help you in the Comments section below.
Nice and it helps, I advise people to concentrate on the good – writing won’t help if they only dwell on their pain and uncertainty. Back in 2007 when I was diagnosed breast cancer, I started writing a haiku journal, bought myself a camera and started taking photos, wrote a haiku book (published in 2010), won some great contests in Japan, translated and put up for free access on a site some very important haiku lessons; now together with haiku friends, planning to launch a bilingual haiku journal.
I’ve been journaling for 30 years (I’m 40), and cannot say enough about how wonderful it is! I journal through letters to God, and I have a journal book of letters for each of my 4 children. My letters to each of them started when I found out I was pregnant with each of them and continue to this day. They are full of the funny things they’ve said and the wonderful things they do. Their journal letters from me tell their precious life story from their mother’s heart. In a fire, these are what I would grab if we could save something material. We love to read from them as a family, especially on each person’s birthday. I keep a separate journal of Miracles and Answered Prayers, which always leaves me in awe as to the amazing and direct ways God has provided for our family both needs and delights. It leaves me overflowing with gratefulness and hopefulness. Recently I began letters to my husband too, whom I dearly desire to spend more time with, but busy family life keeps us on the move. A journal to a spouse allows you to speak your heart and them to read it in their own quiet time. Very nice. I write in journals less than 5 or 10 minutes a week (and jot funny anecdotes on a sticky note to put in there until I sit down to add them). Overtime, a little journaling here and there has produced the very best gifts I could pass along to my loved ones. Thank you for your article. All you wonderful people out there… tell YOUR story in your own hand (loved ones can’t cradle a virtual version when they are sad missing YOU). You will never regret it!
Hi Ty
I was very interested in this article because I started writing a book called “My Life Memories” by Janet Wright at the age of 70. My furthest back memory is when I am about 5 years old and I have written about everything I remember since then, school, University, Marriage, my four lovely grandchildren, relatives, my home town, vacations, etc. I have also included lots of photographs of everything I have written about. My book is at present 214 pages long and so unfortunately I can’t send you a copy by email and I don’t have my writings bound into a book as I don’t know who does this.
The person I wish I knew more about was my dear Mother who died 17 years ago but never spoke of her family. I hope my two daughters and 4 grandchildren cherish my writing when I am gone. Hope you like my reply.
With kind Regards
Janet
email: janet.wright@talktalk.net
21 Northfield Gardens, Prestonpans, East Lothian EH32 9LQ Scotland
I hate to say it but many people I know searched for alternative treatment to cancer but had no success after spending all their life spending.
May be alternative treatments do not work on most people; one must be lucky. I also lost my mother to ovarian cancer, I searched for alternative treatment with no success after spending much money; my father the same.
I don’t believe that any one alternative treatment is the answer, but that treatments addressing multiple areas, including spiritual, diet, exercise, emotional and intellectual are important. Through following everything I could find that felt right to me, in combination with the conventional treatment, I won my way through inflammatory breast cancer seven years ago, astounding my oncologist, radiation oncologist and their staffs. I was fortunate to be working with some of the most open-minded people at the University of Wisconsin Health system, which included in-house acupuncture, dietitian, and integrative physicians. They also encouraged me to look into and pursue other modalities from prayer circles, labyrinths, Gilda’s Club activities, diet changes and daily exercise to color and sound therapy, Reiki, meditation and intuitive healing.
I am stronger and happier than I have been for thirty years, mostly because I have continued the non-medical lifestyle changes I incorporated during that time. I do not, nor do my doctors see any likelihood of any cancer recurrence. In spite of having retired last fall, I am very active: hiking, kayaking, organic gardening, rehabbing our 120 year old house, teaching needlework and crafts.
I am also now a Reiki master and intuitive healer, a psychic and tarot card reader, and an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church, all an outgrowth of my willingness to reassess my life, release fear, and follow an unconventional path to truth and guidance from above.
If I could do anything different, I would have done fewer of the medical treatments. Because of the rarity and extreme rate of spread and recurrence of inflammatory breast cancer, the treatment was to do everything they do for other breast cancer, but more of it. As a result of treatments, the continuing issues I have been dealing with, including weakened liver and heart, are due solely to the extreme medical intervention. But I am building up and strengthening even those areas thru my continuing natural lifestyle, and personal research into health and faith.
Hi Susan, I may not have cancer but have been ill most of my life and followed traditional medical advice. I’m from central Wisconsin and in need of advice to finding alternative treatment. Back in the 90’s tried a gastroenterologist from health clinic on east side of Madison with the intent to be referred to Universty a Health system, but never happened. I’ve wasted so many years with repetitious tests and drugs and now just turned 60 and desperately want to find some answers. Hopefully you can offer me ideas as you have had positive results.from your choices. Thank you, Connie.
Just as many people who go the donventional route also still die.
Can one with limited funds afford it if insurance isnt on board?
Hello Lucy, If you will email, I have some information that I feel will be useful to you.
Please go to the sight of Dr MK Strydom, eagleswings.co.zw and you can download all the information for free to both heal your body and make sure you have a very good and healthy life.
Sorry for your loss Read Marion Pyle’s book, true story.
“cancer” is simply poisoning, malnourishment, and parasitic/microbial infection. Nature and living like a fulfilled fulfilling human being on Earth is the only answer. Being human and real/spiritual works, because human homeostasis is the Natural Normal condition of the body and no disease or disorder exists there. The body is constantly regenerating, so how is it truly being remade each 8 months? (almost the whole body can be anew in less than a year)
So sorry to hear about your parents Lucy. A friend of mine lost her best friend recently to stage 4 cancer after going to Spain for some alternative treatment that I think he heard about in the TTAC videos, but maybe his had just gone too far. I don’t know. I know if it happened to me I certainly wouldn’t have chemo. I watched my lovely nephew suffer for 6 years with chemo and dying a walking skeleton at just 20yrs old. So tragic. I feel so strongly that the answers to cancer is in food though, I really do. Clean unsprayed unprocessed food and exercise. So many people eat such rubbish that it’s hardly surprising they become ill, but I once heard someone on the radio saying that if only people ate what their great grandparents recognized as ‘being’ food, then we’d all be a lot healthier. Made sense that did.
what are your thoughts on Immunotherapy?
Hi Lucy
I lost my Father to widespread cancer – he had no cancer treatment and lived for 2 years after being diagnosed. I lost my Mother due to a sudden Heart Attack. As you say some people are lucky and others not so lucky. I wish you well.
Kind Regards
Janet
Bless Tye for finding out more about cancer. Chemo and radition is nit the answer. A band aid God Bless Sincerly Diane Hackman
I’ve wondered about that, watching the series, how do you go about finding a place to contact and get the help you need to fight cancer
without chemo and traditional cancer treatment.
Hi Ann,
The best advice we can give you is to consult with one of the doctors/experts that we interviewed in our Global Quest Series. Here is a link to get their information: https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/experts-info-sheet/
There is so much alternative treatment to cancer out there that we have no ideal of. What we need to do is to pray for God’s wisdom lead us to find the miracle medicine that he has created. I’m a cancer survivor, 3 years ago, I have had a colon cancer and went through all the treatment and surgery. this year my Dr. said the cancer is back and the only choice I have is to do the second surgery and use lifetime bag. I didn’t take this rout and search for a alternative rout. I have found what I am searching for and now i’m a cancer free. There are many different types of cancer but God has already knew and he has created the the miracle medicine for it and all we have to do is to find it. Jesus said, if we search for we will find it, if we knock the door shell be opened for us. Thanks
What was the route you took then? My husband has had a colostomy two years ago and now has inoperable tummy cancer and been given 18-24 months. I hope you don’t mind my asking . Gaye Brunton
I know. I’m is the same boat. Been looking for a recommended alternative facilities, found a couple cost about $30K, cash in advance only, no financing. Been trying to get a hold of My Bollinger for direction and advice, unable to reach him and no reply.
Disappointed.
Lucy – My sister passed from triple negative breast cancer this year at the age of 68 but this was the third cancer. It started with Hodgkins in her 20’s and even the doctors admit the recurring cancers were caused by the direct radiation to her chest which was the standard care (along with chemo) at the time. She outlived most of the survivors, I believe, because she took great care of herself despite all the chemo/radiation damage. She lived on salmon and an anti-inflammatory diet with supplements like curcumin, ginger, garlic, fish oil. This approach did not cost a ton of money but I believe it attributed to her life span. In fact, when treated for the last very aggressive form of cancer the doctors told her 6 months which she turned into 2 years because although her doctors in Boston at one of the nations Leading hospitals did not want her to take any supplements she continued with mega doses of curcurmin and the other anti-inflammatories and would not eat ANY sugar or anything that was not organic. It infuriated her when they would offer cookies after radiation or chemo treatments! So, natural is better as a prevention any day but personally I would never let them give me poison (chemo) or radiation. Those treatments had a far more negative affect on her health than her diet!
Having watched my mom deteriorate with cancer for 3 or 4 years helped me make an informed decision.
We saw how the so called ‘treatments’, and the long hospital stays, made her worse and worse. Often
her weakened condition was noticeably more alarming upon her return! I’ve decided that I’d never try to prolong my life using those methods. All life on earth is ‘terminal’ ….. ten out of ten people die ! Pain
itself is abhorrent to me, and I’d hope to avoid it as much as possible. It makes perfect sense to use natural, non-toxic and beneficial ingredients / products in my body, even if it means a shorter life! I’m convinced that detrimental, poisonous, toxic chemicals do much more harm than good, which is obvious
when the patient is more and more debilitated as the treatments continue. I pray I never have to face
my ‘demise’ with a long illness, but if that be so, I pray that I have the grace to focus, not on the present discomfort, but on the future with my forgiving Savior. His will is perfect and I trust myself to Him!
When I am angry and upset about something, I tend to write emails and notes to my father and friends just to try and get the bad stuff off my system. When I brood, worry, and keep it bottled up inside me, I do not feel great. I love to write my feelings and anger towards other people, because it makes me feel better.
My father wrote his history many years ago. He has since passed at age 84 (post polio syndrome), but reading his stories while he was still alive and having discussions with him about his adventures and journey in life was truly a gift for both of us. He was an amazing man and I hope that others will share memories with their families as it means so much to the next generations.
To Ty Bollinger, I admired your article, the words are simple and understandable, the message is inspiring and helpful. Thank you! God bless u!
A few years back I was lent a book by a friend called ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron. Not one of the usual crappy self help books but this one I can’t rate highly enough. The most important and helpful thing was that every morning, the first thing you had to do before anything else was to sit on your own and write a page and a half of anything. Whatever came into your head. It wasn’t specified what size paper so I used A4 and although at first struggled with what to say, soon, after a few lines of dribble I began to write …. and write … and write. Ty is right, it helped me more than anything has ‘ever!’. You weren’t ever to re-read it, not ever. Well after about two thirds of this A4 pad I realised I’d stopped writing. I realised I no longer needed to. I felt so so much better! I never did re-read it. I burnt it on a bonfire as didn’t want anyone to be hurt on coming across it. So I totally agree that writing is just the best way to clear your head and to take it further as Ty mentioned, journaling is a great way to carry this on once you’ve healed yourself, and I am in the process of doing this so that one day my daughter can read it too. A journal with all sorts in, some family history, photos, anecdotes, funny stories, it really can’ be filled with anything and I want to leave my daughter something to treasure that hopefully will bring a smile. I’ll have no money to leave but memories are far more important ….
I just read an article in the newspaper about homeopathy. In Germany 60 % of the people use homeopathic treatment, and the German wellfare system finance that. In my country there are not similar positive opinion about it. In Sweden it´s forbidden for alternative healing to practise, they can only treat easier illnesses.
What can these alternative treatments do if people are forced to use the traditional methods (radiation, chemotherapy).
Hi Stigdahlstrom
In Great Britain the traditional methods for cancer are chemotherapy and radiation but I don’t think alternative treatments are funded by our National Health Service. So the alternative is to refuse treatment and so it would depend on whether the person could afford to pay for private alternatives.
Hi Silvia
As I stated before I am writing a book “My Life Memories” by Janet Wright. It contains everything I remember about my life. You could also write your feelings about people you love and you will have something to look back on. I wish you well in your writings.
With Kind Regards
Janet
Janet Wright, if I write my feelings towards my mother battling cancer, could I ever have it published in a newspaper and receive money for it?
I am happy to read this as I love writing in a journal but don’t always get to do so and I forget for months almost a year sometime but I realize that when I start it up again I feel better. Glad to know there’ s some science behind it and it makes sense! I also like to think of my journal writing time as talking with my Lord.
I’ve relieved a lot of stress and emotion using my many years on this planet by going on political forums and correcting Liberal Millennials in the way government and the real world works.
I have lived with breast cancer for 10 years chemo three times radiotherapy twice and getting herceptin every three weeks for the past 5 years.i am57 years old and my life now is pain breathlessness on oxygen continuously most of my time spent in bed. I have always wanted to write a book about me as i am a deep thinker and as a nurse have given great empathy to others.not able to work now I await for someone to reach out and help me but I don’t believe my kids know how to.hopefully by writing a book about me my life,emotions anger and happiness but they have all hurt me badly how or do think I should tell them in this story how alone I am with cancer and they all could have been there for me. I have always tried to be there for them
Write your book and your feelings. One day they will regret not being there for you. I was a single Mom and did all I could for my three children. They are all in their 49’s and busy busy busy. When I was that age I was too!
I don’t demand their time. I express my love for them.
I always an available for them. I don’t shower them with money. They are all hard workers and very good parents.
So I am grateful they are the way they are and think to myself they are passing on the love I gave them.
Christ is with me and that is sufficient. Don’t make your children feel obligated because they will resent you and you will become a chore and a burden!
I know if I really really need my children they would be here but I don’t. Be happy when you see them and don’t go on and on with your issues, pains and needs!!!!
Don’t whine and whine!! Get a life and cultivate friends.
My church family is a blessing to me.
I too am a retired RN after 44 years of nursing and I loved it!
Hi Silvia You could write about your mother battling cancer but I would not write anything bad as there is no point to this. If you can write in a good way then by all means go ahead and write. I don’t know whether any newspaper would be willing to print this and to pay you money for it. I only have a copy of my first edition of my book in my local library. Otherwise I allow anyone who is interested to read my book for free.
Janet Wright
What are all these radio and TV adds for cancer research ,what utter crap they say ,quote ” with your help we will beat cancer sooner ” what one ultra con is going on when there are already proven non big pharma snake oils cures …Like GCMAF /BIO RESONANCE based on the RIFE machine/ and many many more that have been systematically suppressed by ANY MEANS by big pharma and its corporate police force FDA/AMA/USDA/CDCWHO/MHRA UK. big pharmas objective is to keep the money go round going ,they do not want any cures that will cure cancer and many other ills… once cancer has a cure from big pharma the trillions stop… So all these adds should say ” Will your help giving and raising funds for cancer Research we will keep cancer going for as long as we can con the public into thinking we are looking for a cancer cure”
Big corrupt pharma motto “There is no money in cures”….. send The Truth about Cancer far and wide.